RAYONIER INC (RYN)

Rayonier is a timberland real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in and actively manages timberlands in some of the most productive softwood growing regions of the U.S. and New Zealand, aiming to provide current income and long-term returns to shareholders. It operates through an UPREIT structure in which assets are held by Rayonier, L.P. (the Operating Partnership), with Rayonier as sole general partner and a 97.9% owner as of December 31, 2022. The company traces its origins to the Rainier Pulp & Paper Company, founded in 1926, spun off its Performance Fibers manufacturing business in 2014 to become a pure-play timberland REIT, and acquired Pope Resources in 2020. It also pursues higher and better use (HBU) land sales, and emphasizes sustainable yield forestry, carbon sequestration and nature-based solutions.

Rayonier reports five segments: Southern Timber, Pacific Northwest Timber, New Zealand Timber, Real Estate, and Trading. As of December 31, 2022, it owned, leased or managed about 2.8 million acres: 1.92 million in the U.S. South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas), 474,000 in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington), and 417,000 gross acres in New Zealand (297,000 net plantable). Timber segment sales include timber harvests plus leasing and licensing, nature-based solutions and carbon credit sales. Southern lands are mostly loblolly and slash pine plantations plus natural stands. Pacific Northwest lands are mainly western hemlock and Douglas-fir, weighted to sawtimber. New Zealand holdings are mainly radiata pine and Douglas-fir. The Real Estate segment sells rural and development HBU properties, mainly through the Wildlight project north of Jacksonville, Florida, and the Heartwood project south of Savannah, Georgia. The Trading segment trades logs to Pacific Rim markets, mainly from New Zealand and Australia.

Key timber customers in the South are pulp, paper, wood products and biomass facilities located near the timberlands. Pacific Northwest sawtimber is sold to domestic wood products facilities and exported mainly to Pacific Rim markets. New Zealand timberlands serve the domestic sawmilling market and supply export logs. The log trading operation serves timberland owners in New Zealand and Australia and provides access to export markets in China, South Korea and India. Rayonier also acquired about 141,000 acres of fee timberland in 2022.

Rayonier's U.S. timberlands are managed under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program, and its New Zealand lands are certified under the Forest Stewardship Council and mostly the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. It owns no manufacturing assets. New Zealand operations are run by Matariki Forestry Group, a joint venture with Stafford Capital Partners in which Rayonier holds 77% and which is managed by its subsidiary Rayonier New Zealand Limited. About 229,000 New Zealand acres are leased under long-term arrangements such as Crown Forest Licenses. Rayonier uses a genetic seedling improvement program and site-specific silviculture, and its estimated annual sustainable yields are 6.8 to 7.2 million tons in the South, 190 to 215 MMBF in the Pacific Northwest, and 2.1 to 2.4 million cubic meters in New Zealand. The company describes itself as the only publicly traded pure-play timberland REIT. Its shares trade on the NYSE under RYN. It is a North Carolina corporation headquartered at 1 Rayonier Way, Wildlight, Florida.